Work Text:
From My Heart to Your Inbox
Naruto’s expectations for this book signing had been pretty straightforward—meet some fans, maybe see a few pieces of killer fanart, and endure a handful of awkward, terrifyingly sincere critiques of the more explicit scenes in his writing.
Ya know, the usual.
An hour in, it’s everything he’d been hoping for. He’s in his element: cracking jokes, doodling little fishcakes on book covers, and thriving off of the chaos. His proudest achievement as an author will definitely always be attracting a cult following of people that are his kind of crazy.
There’s a lull after a particularly giggly group of teens walk away, and he takes a sip of his watered down iced coffee. Glancing around, his eyes dart from regular to regular to spiky silver hair to regular—
Wait—one of those things is not like the others.
When Ino had suggested the old café their friend group used to haunt as broke college students as a venue, he maybe should have been more prepared to see such a blast from his past. Naruto blinks, then squints. “No way…”
The image before him doesn’t change, and it’s like he’s been transported back to his undergrad days: Hatake Kakashi, stoic literature professor and somehow universally beloved asshole, sits at one of the high tables near the windows, head bent over the table as he scrawls notes onto the paper in front of him with a familiar red pen. He can’t remember how many evenings he spent sitting in a cozy, dimly lit office as the professor tore through his own work in that same way.
His eyes fall to the familiar blue book lying beside the stack of paper, and he’s walking toward his old professor before he even realizes he’s gotten up.
“Kakashi-sensei!”
The older man glances up briefly, gray eyes looking him over before he places his pen on the table and gives Naruto his full attention. “Ah, Naruto. Fancy seeing you here.”
The full weight of his attention hits just as hard as it always used to, and Naruto snorts to cover up the way something in his chest flutters in a stupid way. “I’m here for a book signing. And since I don’t believe in coincidences, that,” he points at the book, his book, “makes me think you came prepared.”
“Maa, this old thing?” Kakashi drops a hand on the book, drumming his fingers on the cover briefly. “Must have grabbed it by accident when I left my office.”
He laughs at the nonchalant tone. “You’ve never done anything on accident in your life, sensei. What, were you feeling nostalgic about judging my writing or something?”
Kakashi hums, leaning back casually. “Well, I suppose none of my other students have been as persistently annoying in seeking out my critique as you were. Since you were in the area, I thought I’d preemptively offer my services.”
Naruto’s eyebrows shoot up, and he can’t keep the smile off his face as he asks, “Are you offering to beta-read my smut, sensei?”
Unreadable as ever, Kakashi looks him over once more, and Naruto feels like one of the papers on the table between them. “Depends. Are you still open to honest feedback, or have your lovestruck fans gotten to your head?” The ghost of a smirk pulls at the corner of his mouth.
“You don’t have to be gentle with me, sensei—I can take it.” The exchange is so familiar that Naruto can almost smell the paper, ink, and subtle spice that used to fill Kakashi’s office.
The silver haired man huffs a quiet laugh. “I suppose I’ll be the judge of that.” He glances behind Naruto briefly. “Speaking of lovestruck fans…”
Naruto blinks and looks over his shoulder. There are a few people standing next to his table chatting excitedly and sneaking not-so-subtle peeks at him as they wait. He turns back to Kakashi with a sheepish grin. “Duty calls, I guess.” He hesitates for a second before doubling down. “I’ll talk to you soon, yeah?”
Kakashi is already looking back down at his papers, but Naruto can see the smile playing at the corner of his mouth. “I look forward to it.”
Naruto stares at his screen, and the cursor blinks back at him. He hadn’t actually planned on taking Kakashi up on his joking offer—the man surely has more important things to do than humor his annoying former student—but this chapter has been kicking his ass in a way that makes him want to tear his hair out.
And normally, he’d figure it out himself. He’d brute force his way past the writer’s block until he could do justice to the thoughts swirling in his head. But now?
All he can think about are the papers he used to take to office hours back when Kakashi was his stoic, annoying as hell professor who had a tendency to ruthlessly break down Naruto’s work and help him piece it back together into something he could be proud of while driving Naruto up the fucking wall in the process.
And as much as he might have hissed at that idea in his early college years, maybe that’s what he needs now.
Sighing, he opens his email.
Subject: Calling all beta readers for brutal feedback
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
📎DumpsterFire.pdf
Yo,
I’m taking you up on your offer—sucks if you meant it as a joke, you’re stuck with me now.
I can’t get the scene in my head down on paper, no matter how hard I try. This is a literal dumpster fire, so…
Hope you realize what you signed up for.
— 🍥
A few days pass with no response, and Naruto remembers the way he would sit in front of Kakashi for what felt like hours as the man went through his papers line by line with a sharp gaze and viciously red pen.
He’s not sure waiting behind a screen is any less nerve-wracking.
Then, during a late-night grocery run for ramen and caffeine, his phone buzzes.
Email.
Kakashi.
Refusing to have his pride torn to shreds in front of the cup ramen display, he shoves his phone back in his pocket and checks out so quickly, he almost leaves his credit card in the card reader. Sprinting back to the apartment, he throws the ramen on the counter and grabs one of the energy drinks.
He flops onto the couch, cracks open the drink and his laptop, and clicks.
Subject: Re: Calling all beta readers for brutal feedback
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
📎DumpsterFire.pdf
Naruto,
While I’m glad to see you’ve grown a sense of self-awareness, I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a “dumpster fire.” It seems more of a “choose your own disaster,” and if that was your goal, then I have no notes.
Since that clearly isn’t the case:
You’re hesitating, writing in circles without saying anything concrete. You’re not struggling with words—you’re struggling with what they mean to you.
Stop trying to emulate Jiraiya’s style. Stop running from your story.
Write it like you mean it.
— Kakashi
Naruto huffs a laugh. His hands hover over the keyboard, an impulsive reply at the tip of his fingers, but he hesitates. Closes the laptop.
His chest is doing that stupid thing again. Before the book signing, he hadn’t felt that flutter in years—not since he’d spent an ungodly amount of his free time sprawled in the chair across from Kakashi and the man had effortlessly cut through Naruto’s metaphorical and emotional defenses.
Of course he’s still just as devastatingly good at it all these years later.
He scrubs a hand down his face and stares down at the stickers littering the lid of his laptop.
Stop running, huh?
He fishes a battered notebook and a pen from the drawer of the end table, and he kicks his feet up on his coffee table. Downing half of the energy drink in one go, he takes a deep breath and puts pen to paper.
Subject: From my brain to your inbox
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
📎ExistentialCrisisOnPaper.pdf
Yo,
I want you to remember that you asked for this. This is me—unfiltered, fueled by caffeine and cold ramen.
Read it before I overthink it and actually set the whole thing on fire.
—naruto
Kakashi’s response comes a day later.
Subject: Critique on Your Existential Crisis
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
Naruto,
No fires necessary (yet). You’ve definitely changed the tone. It feels less theatrical, more… vulnerable. The protagonist isn’t just playing the part of a smooth-talking charmer anymore. He’s second-guessing himself, trying to get it right and praying he knows what he’s doing.
It’s interesting. You should lean into it more.
Question—does he actually know what he’s doing, or is he in over his head?
—Kakashi
Naruto reads that last line at least three times.
The protagonist—Menma—is fumbling. He has no idea how to navigate the shift in his relationship with the other main character, the one he’d spent years pretending didn’t affect him.
And okay, sure, maybe Naruto has been pulling from real life for that dynamic without realizing it—and fuck Kakashi for noticing before he did.
He stares at the email for a long time before finally replying.
Subject: Re: Critique on Your Existential Crisis
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
Fumbling’s more real than perfect, yeah?
—naruto
Kakashi’s response is almost immediate.
Subject: Re: Re: Critique on Your Existential Crisis
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
True. Though there’s a fine line between “real” and “disaster in the making.”
Naruto is definitely not going to think too hard about that.
Except that he totally fucking does.
Because the more he fleshes out Menma, the more the story resonates in a familiar, uncomfortable way. The teasing conversations with the older, sharper, unreadable character who always seems one step ahead. The way Menma keeps walking into situations he thinks he has under control, only to realize that he absolutely does not.
The way that the story hints at something unspoken lurking between them, something as terrifying as it is obvious.
Naruto stares at his manuscript.
Then at Kakashi’s last email.
Then back to the manuscript.
“...Well, fuck.”
Naruto lets that email simmer for a few days, redirecting his attention to some chore or another every time his fingers twitch with the urge to respond.
His apartment has never been cleaner or more organized—and eventually, the same rings true for his thoughts.
The thing is—
Naruto has never really been the type to tiptoe around a problem. It’s not his style, and he kind of fucking sucks at it.
Where he truly excels is confronting things head-on—it might be messy, and it might scuff a few things up before it makes them better, but it works for him.
Now that he knows what’s going on—that he’s basically copy/pasted his and Kakashi’s dynamic into the book, that Menma is clearly him with better posture and red hair, and that the love interest, Sukea, is Kakashi in everything but name—he doesn’t panic.
He leans into it.
When he sits down to write, armed with another energy drink and a pint of ice cream, he writes it like he means it—like he’s always meant it. He focuses on the shift between Menma and Sukea and lets the truth bleed through just enough to hit closer to home—the teasing, the unreadable smirks, the way Sukea has a penchant for instigating all of Menma’s existential crises.
He pulls from the evenings spent in Kakashi’s office to ramp up the tension. He makes sure Menma is hyper-aware every time Sukea looks at him, how it makes his chest feel warm when Sukea gives him a rare compliment wrapped in ever-present snark, how he feels Sukea’s presence like a magnetic pull whenever they’re in the same room.
He ends the chapter on a spar, a chance for Menma to show Sukea how much he’s progressed in his training—and for Sukea to tease Menma for being in over his head.
And then he sends it to Kakashi without a single ounce of shame.
Subject: Leaning Into It
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
📎SubtextWhatSubtext.pdf
Kakashi,
I think this sounds more authentic—but let me know if I missed the mark.
Don’t be gentle with me, sensei. I can take it.
— 🍥
Kakashi doesn’t respond that night.
Or the next morning.
He catches lunch with Sakura that afternoon, and he forces himself to leave his phone at home, knowing he’d spend the whole time checking it for Kakashi’s name. He barely sees her anymore because she’s always exhausted from ridiculous shifts at the hospital, and he wants to be present.
His restlessness still manages to bleed through—leg bouncing, deep sighs, staring at his plate like it holds the secrets to the inner workings of Kakashi’s brain—and Sakura calls him out on it.
“—to Naruto, come in, Naruto.”
He startles at the hand waving in front of his face, and he turns to Sakura with a sheepish smile. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“What’s going on with you?” She watches him through narrowed eyes, and the suspicion really highlights the bags under her eyes (not that Naruto is stupid enough to point that out).
He’s also not stupid enough to deflect, so he shoots for as close to the truth as he can without giving her enough ammunition to read him to filth over the crush he’d had in college. “My… editor has been pointing out a lot of stuff in my manuscript lately, and I guess it’s really resonating with me.”
She pops a piece of broccoli in her mouth and watches him thoughtfully as she chews. “You usually manage to convince your editor they’re wrong laughably easily. What’s different this time?”
Naruto laughs. “I, uh, got a new one for this book. Someone who’s really… pushing me.” He pokes at his own veggies halfheartedly. “He’s an asshole, but he’s an insightful asshole.”
Sakura hums. “Well, sounds like a good thing to me. I mean, you’re great at what you do, but you need someone to call you out every once in a while.” She grins at him. “And since you won’t let me do it, I guess this guy’s pretty good for you.”
The blonde slumps a bit in relief—he can tell he’s satisfied her curiosity enough for her to stop digging into it.
It won’t last forever, but it’ll get him through lunch.
It’s almost midnight when his email chimes. He grabs his laptop off of his nightstand and cracks it open, clicking on Kakashi’s name faster than he’ll ever admit.
Subject: Re: Leaning Into It
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
📎SubtextWhatSubtext.pdf
Naruto,
You’ve made some interesting creative decisions. The dialogue itself feels particularly… lived-in—almost like it was pulled from experience. Intentional?
Tell me, is Menma aware of what he’s getting himself into? Or is he still fumbling blindly?
—Kakashi
Naruto reads the email once, twice, three times.
And he laughs, tilting his head back and smiling at the ceiling. Of course Kakashi isn’t going to admit anything outright, isn’t going to take the bait the way Naruto had kind of hoped. That’s never been his style.
Ever the professor, he’ll keep pushing, keep throwing Naruto’s own words back at him until Naruto comes to the conclusion on his own.
He can hear the dry amusement in Kakashi’s voice, can hear him telling Naruto to catch up already.
His fingers fly across the keyboard almost of their own volition, his reply simple but clear.
Subject: Re: Re: Leaning Into It
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
📎SubtextWhatSubtext.pdf
Oh, sensei. Menma’s all-in.
—naruto
The shift in their following emails is subtle but heated—the game, this thing between them, has officially begun.
Naruto never would have thought that emails would be the thing to change their dynamic, but here he is—checking his inbox like a damn lovesick fool, eagerly waiting to see where Kakashi will take this.
Because this is no longer about his book.
This is no longer critiques on his writing.
This is an exploration, a dance.
A challenge to see who cracks first.
And Kakashi seems just as invested in winning as Naruto is.
Subject: The First Step
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
Naruto,
That’s good—awareness is the first step to understanding. But tell me—does he understand what he’s walking into? Or is he still playing at confidence while hoping he doesn’t trip over his own feet?
Because from where I’m sitting, he seems to have a habit of rushing headfirst into things without thinking them through.
—Kakashi
Subject: Re: The First Step
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
I think he understands perfectly.
And yeah, maybe he does have a habit of rushing into things, but you know what else?
He’s usually right.
And even when he’s not, he’s never been afraid to fall on his face a few times before he gets it right.
So maybe it’s not about whether he understands—maybe it’s about whether the other guy is ready to stop pretending he doesn’t.
—naruto
Naruto doesn’t exactly mean to dig into old memories, but it starts happening anyway.
He finds himself writing about Kakashi as a teacher—how their relationship had always been laced with unspoken understanding, how he’d quietly supported him and seen him in ways no one else did.
He writes the progression of Sukea as Menma’s sensei and how he pushes him—never cruelly, but just enough to inspire Menma to be better. He writes the way Sukea guides quietly, never pulling Menma along behind him but nudging him toward becoming the person he was always meant to be. He writes the way Sukea’s soft praise always means something, always feels earned.
It’s not subtle.
But then again, neither is Naruto.
So when he sends over the next chapter, he knows that Kakashi will see exactly what he’s doing.
Subject: A Little Nostalgia
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
📎ATripDownMemoryLane.pdf
A few memories to really flesh them out. What do you think?
—naruto
Subject: Re: A Little Nostalgia
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
📎ATripDownMemoryLane.pdf
Naruto,
Clever. The dynamic between the two has certainly taken an interesting turn—less about playful back-and-forth, more about history. Shared experience. The foundation of what they are, shaping them before either even acknowledges it.
It’s a good addition. It makes the tension feel more earned.
…And if this was your attempt at making me sentimental, I regret to inform you that it won’t work. My heart is made of stone.
—Kakashi
Naruto grins at the confirmation that Kakashi remembers just as much as he does, that he sees the way this thing between them has grown.
And so he keeps going.
Somewhere along the way, as the emails stack up and the late nights blur into early mornings, he realizes an aspect of this back-and-forth that he isn’t using to its full potential.
Because Kakashi had known the teenage Naruto—the naïve, impetuous, sometimes stupid version of him.
The person he is now, who had stumbled his way into adulthood and lived and loved and learned until he finally came into himself?
Kakashi doesn’t know him.
So, Naruto uses Menma to show him.
He describes a person who still has that same fire, still makes impulsive decisions, but who has grown. A person who has been knocked down over and over but gotten up better for it every time. A person who has seen the world, worked shitty jobs, made lifelong friends, and come out on the other side with a better understanding of himself.
A person who has an idea of what he wants out of life and who he wants it with.
He pours his heart into this character and into his email.
And when he hits send, he sends a piece of him with it for Kakashi to meet.
Subject: Re: Nice to Meet You
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
📎Introspection.pdf
Naruto,
You’ve come a long way with Menma’s character—he’s evolved from an impulsive, mouthy brat into something deeper. He’s more patient, more measured. Still impulsive, but not blindly so. He thinks before he acts now—even if it’s only for a second.
He’s turning into a fully fleshed out character that readers will find themselves invested in.
Still a bit of a mouthy brat, though.
It’s an interesting development. Feels… strikingly personal. Intentional?
—Kakashi
Subject: Re: Re: Nice to Meet You
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
📎Introspection.pdf
I guess you could call it personal. Sometimes, a guy has gotta grow the hell up.
—naruto
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Nice to Meet You
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
📎Introspection.pdf
Growing up is one thing. Letting people see it is another.
Are you planning on addressing the elephant in the room, or shall I continue reading between the lines?
—Kakashi
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Nice to Meet You
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
📎Introspection.pdf
Where’s the fun in just telling you? Thought you liked a challenge, sensei.
Guess you’ll have to keep reading.
—naruto
Every time Naruto sits down at his laptop after that, his heart is just as much in his words as it is in his throat. Every description, every memory, every single detail…
It’s Naruto sending bits and pieces of himself to Kakashi, hoping he sees them for what they are. For what he is.
But then—
He’s writing a memory, thinly veiled as a reunion scene between Menma and Sukea after the former returns from an extended mission, when he realizes… He’s writing a mentor he used to see as frustrating, unreadable, steadfast.
Someone Menma used to think he understood.
Someone who, now that he’s older and arguably a bit wiser, he’s realizing he’s never really understood at all.
He tags it onto a list of other memories—stories of Menma’s growth into the person he is now—without any commentary.
Just the chapter.
Just the memories.
And he waits.
It takes longer than usual for Kakashi to reply, and when he does, the message is shorter than Naruto had expected.
Subject: Hm.
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
Naruto,
Interesting chapter—it adds a distinct depth to the character.
I wonder—does Menma want to understand Sukea now? Or is he just trying to figure out what he missed the first time around?
—Kakashi
Naruto reads the email twice.
Buffers.
Then he really reads it.
Because that—
That’s Kakashi reaching back out, meeting Naruto in a way that puts the man in a particularly vulnerable position.
For the first time since this whole thing began, he doesn’t know how to answer.
Holy fuck.
He sits with the email longer than usual, and he cleans his apartment again, wording and rewording his reply over and over again.
He has to get this right.
When he finally lets himself pull up his email again, his hands hover above the keyboard hesitantly. Then he takes a deep breath, because Naruto is a lot of things, but he’s never been a coward.
He hits send.
Subject: What do you think?
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
Kakashi,
I’ve been thinking about Sukea. I thought I had him figured out, that I knew what he was to Menma, but now… I’m not so sure I’m doing him justice.
Since you’re so good at reading between the lines—how would you flesh him out?
I mean, you’ve been watching from the sidelines this whole time, right? I know you have opinions. So tell me, Kakashi: who is Sukea to Menma, really?
—naruto
Naruto tries not to check his inbox obsessively. He leaves his phone at home again when Sakura invites him out for drinks with everyone.
He does his best to be present, to catch up with everyone, but he finds himself zoning out. He eyes his drink, toying with the straw as his fingers itch to reach for a phone that isn’t on his person.
He knows it’s obvious when Sakura falls into the seat next to him and nudges his shoulder. He scrambles to put his chair back on all four feet and eyes the drink in her hand—clearly, it’s not her first one of the evening.
Oblivious, she throws her free arm around Naruto’s shoulder and pulls him in close, yelling over the music. “You’re supposed to be having fun tonight. It’s not like you to be a sad drunk!”
Naruto laughs, leaning into her. “Not drunk—I haven’t even finished my first one.” He gestures with the watered down glass.
Sakura huffs. “That makes it worse! If you’re sober, then what the hell’s up with the long face?” Her eyes light up, and she squeezes him closer. “Are you having boy problems??”
He feels his face heat up and hopes she’ll chalk it up to how hot it is in the bar. “Ah, no, I don’t—”
She shakes him, grinning as her drink sloshes dangerously. “You totally are! Come on, tell your big sis!”
He struggles against her hold, scratching his nose self-consciously. “No, seriously, it’s not—”
“Naruto~” She cuts him off, the most unimpressed look on her face.
Naruto is well-acquainted with that look—he’s the reason she mastered that look.
“I know the signs, dumbass. You’ve been sighing dramatically and staring longingly into your drink all night.” She waves off his protests. “Seriously, Naruto, I haven’t seen you like this since coll—”
He winces, shrinking in on himself as he watches the realization hit. “Nooooo…”
“Wh—” She blinks. Sets her cup down on the bar and releases him, turning to face him fully. “Uzumaki Naruto. Is your "new editor" fucking Hatake Kakashi?”
He just stares at her, mouth pressed in a straight line.
“Oh my god, you beautiful disaster,” she mutters, dragging a hand down her face with a sigh. “Alright, tell me everything.”
He’s seen that glint in those green eyes too many times to not do exactly as she says, and he drops his forehead to the bar with a thud. “So, it’s like this…”
It’s well after 1am before Sakura lets him go, having thoroughly gone through every embarrassing detail with Naruto until she had the entire, lovesick picture.
He’s never been one for prayer, but he sends his eternal gratitude into the void to whatever entity was responsible for him leaving his phone at home—if she’d had access to those emails during that conversation, he thinks he might actually have died.
He opens his front door with a sigh, pushing it closed behind him and leaning against it, taking a breath to ground himself. His eyes fall on his phone lying on the counter, and he doesn’t even try to pretend nonchalance as he snatches it up.
Fuck.
He responded.
Too impatient to boot up his laptop, he launches the app and pulls the email up on his phone, squinting at the text through the battered screen protector.
Subject: Re: What do you think?
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
Naruto,
Sukea is a difficult man to pin down… He keeps his distance. It’s easier that way.
To most people, he’s a closed book—distant, unreadable, more likely to deflect with humor than to say anything real.
But to Menma?
He’s someone who has always been watching, always keeping his distance until he’s sure Menma won’t trip over his own feet. Someone who wants to be understood but has never been very good at letting people close enough to try.
…And maybe someone who assumed—stupidly, it seems—that Menma would eventually outgrow him.
And never really stopped to consider what might happen if he didn’t.
—Kakashi
Naruto’s breath leaves him in a rush. Before he even has a chance to process… That™, his phone dings with a new email notification. Frowning, he taps to pull it up.
Subject: Re: Re: What do you think?
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
Ah, but maybe that’s reading too deeply into it. Forget I said that.
He’s not tired anymore, and his mind races.
He knows he’s looking at something rare, something fragile—this is Kakashi, peeling back a layer just far enough to let Naruto see something real.
Just enough for Naruto to feel the shift in his chest, gentle but undeniable.
Naruto isn’t stupid. He knows what Kakashi is doing—offering just enough insight to draw him in while still keeping himself at arm’s length. It’s classic Kakashi: never saying more than necessary, never letting anyone get too close.
But—
Naruto, as terrifying as it feels to even think it, isn’t just anyone.
And he’s not letting this chance slip by.
If Kakashi is willing to crack the door open, Naruto is going to see if he can push it just a little wider.
Subject: Re: Re: Re: What do you think?
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
Kakashi,
You’re right. I haven’t been doing Sukea justice at all.
He’s always been there, always been an integral piece of the plot, but I think I’ve been writing him the way I thought he should be, instead of who he really is.
So here’s a deal: read the next chapter. Tell me if I got it right. If I didn’t, tell me what I missed.
No holding back—I can take it.
—naruto
And then he gets to work.
He opens a new document and throws away all preconceived notions built on a childish understanding of a nebulous Authority Figure, of someone he had no hope of really knowing.
He strips the character back, rebuilding him with everything Kakashi has hinted at in their exchanges, looking back on every college interaction through new eyes. All of those late nights where they debated for hours on end, where he now knows Kakashi had let slip small details about himself—nothing major, just bits and pieces Naruto could use to truly appreciate the man on the other side of the desk, if only he’d try.
Most importantly, he lets Sukea want something.
Want to be understood.
Want to stay close.
Want to believe that, even though Menma has grown up, he won’t leave him behind.
When he finishes it, he doesn’t read through it again—he already knows it’s the most honest writing he’s done in a long time.
He attaches it to an email and hits send. He doesn’t add any playful jokes, any teasing commentary.
It’s just Kakashi—and the desperate hope that Naruto had gotten it right.
Subject: Huh.
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
Naruto,
You got him.
…Which is impressive, considering he doesn’t even understand himself half the time.
If you're looking for feedback, I’d be happy to provide some. I’m sure you remember how my office hours work.
—Kakashi
Naruto stands in front of the door, manuscript in one hand, coffee in the other—the same order they always shared back in college.
Standing here again after all this time feels... surreal. Like stepping straight into the past.
Out of the corner of his eye, he can almost see the ghost of his younger self sprinting down the hall, essay between his teeth, trying to shrug into his jacket without taking off his bag as he darts between the other students. He sees the grin—even around the paper—the wild spark in his eyes, the anticipation curling around him like something tangible.
Even then, he’d known.
Maybe not consciously, but somewhere beneath the bravado and bad metaphors, he'd felt it—this thing he couldn’t name just yet.
He can now.
Naruto shakes his head, huffing a quiet laugh. He turns back to the door and lets his eyes trace the faded lettering on the nameplate. He can’t stop the smile that pulls at the corner of his mouth. He shifts the coffee, frees a hand.
And knocks.
Epilogue
Some Months Later
Subject: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
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Could you, JUST ONCE, pick up the groceries without critiquing my list?!
Sukea wouldn’t do Menma like this—just saying.
Subject: Re: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
From: Hatake Kakashi
To: Uzumaki Naruto
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Just a few notes:
Cup Ramen (x7)—Excessive. Consider trimming back to something more reasonable.
Ice Cream (the good kind)—Vague wording. Could mean anything. Feels like a trap.
Overall strong in theme, but it loses sight of the original objective quite early in the story. I also can’t help but notice a glaring lack of several characters previously discussed—namely, any vegetable at all. 6/10.
P.S. If you think this isn’t completely in line with Sukea’s character, we may need to revisit your manuscript.
Subject: Re: Re: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
From: Uzumaki Naruto
To: Hatake Kakashi
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Fine. You’re on veggie duty next week.
Also, I still understand Sukea’s character perfectly, you absolute menace.
❤️